This invention relates to the field of automatic control systems, and more particularly to an electronic programmable multi-channel automatic control system having useful application in the field of energy management, irrigation, laboratory control systems, process control and other areas where time based control actions may be initiated automatically.
Conventional automatic control systems have several known limitations. At one end of the spectrum, the existing electro-mechanical control systems tend to suffer from many of the problems normally associated with systems which use moving mechanical components, i.e., the reliability and operational accuracy experienced in practice are less than optimum. At the other end of the spectrum, the sophisticated fully automated software-controlled systems tend to be costly and often require extensive programming skills for their utilization.
In view of the present concern with energy conservation, the above limitations associated with conventional automatic control systems used for energy management may be undesirable in many applications.
An optimal energy management control system for use in an industrial, commercial or residential environment should be capable of providing accurate and reliable operation. To maximize operating life, to minimize mean time between failure, and to optimize reliability and ruggedness, the control system should preferably have no or few moving parts. From the point of view of the user, the control system should be easy to program and should be capable of displaying the programmed parameters to allow the user to readily verify the program and, if necessary, to modify the program. Furthermore, the control system should be cost effective.
It is accordingly a general object of the present invention to provide an automatic control system which is not accompanied by the limitations and drawbacks associated with the known systems, and which has attributes more nearly approaching those of the optimal system.
It is a particular object of the invention to provide an improved simple, low-cost automatic control system capable of being easily used to control energy usage.
Other objects will be apparent in the following description of the preferred embodiment and the practice of the invention.